Auditory Ensemble Perception (Summary Statistics) for Music Scale Tones by Listeners with and without Absolute Pitch

Abstract

ABSTRACT Ensemble perception refers to our ability to summarize complex information across individual items in a group. Ensemble perception of pitch in the auditory domain can be achieved remarkably well: listeners can accurately judge whether the pitch corresponding to the mean frequency of a set of six music scale tones is higher or lower than the pitch of a test tone presented after the set. Ensemble perception for music scale tones was performed by absolute pitch (AP) possessors (n = 16) and musically experienced non-AP listeners (n = 14). They performed a set averaging experiment (Experiment 1), and a tone recognition experiment, in which they judged whether an individual tone had been part of the set or not (Experiment 2). AP listeners obtained a significantly higher percentage correct and a smaller just noticeable difference than non-AP listeners when comparing the (average) pitch of the set and the test. Remarkably, though, AP listeners did not significantly outperform non-AP listeners in individual tone recognition. These results suggest that a cognitive tone-labeling strategy, as predominantly used by AP listeners, enhances ensemble perception for music scale tones. Musically experienced non-AP listeners, however, can achieve recognition of individual tones without tone labeling at a very high level as well. Possible strategies used by the listeners in both groups were discussed.